DEM Party Women’s Council: We will not allow violence to be legitimized
“We will not allow violence against women to be legitimized,” DEM Party Women’s Council said in a statement regarding the smear campaign against Êlih (Batman) Co-mayor Gülistan Sönük, who was removed from office.
Ankara- Gülistan Sönük, the removed Co-mayor of Êlih (Batman), has been the target of a smear campaign for her speech, criticizing the trustee appointed to the municipality for decorating the building of the Women's Policies Directorate with posters about marriage and family institutions.
The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Women’s Council has released a statement about the smear campaign against Gülistan Sönük, saying, “We will not allow violence against women to be legitimized.”
Accusing the government of shaping society with sexist codes throughout its 22-year rule, the statement said, “While women are killed and subjected to violence every day, they target women struggling against gender-based violence and femicide.”
‘The government will not be able to cover up crimes committed against women’
The statement emphasized that the real aim of the attacks against Gülistan Sönük is to “legitimize domestic violence and femicide. Their aim is to intimidate and silence women by confining them to home. Those who define women not as a subject of society but in the context of the ‘family’ in which they are killed should know well that we will not allow them to legitimize inequality and violence against women by using family as a tool. The government will not be able to cover up crimes committed against women by using such discussions. We will continue to expose the policies of the patriarchal government everywhere. Everyone should know very well that we will build a free and equal life based on the women’s freedom paradigm with our principle of co-presidential system and equal representation.”